Donald Trump is trying to distract us from what he’s suddenly backing down on
On Sunday night, just twelve hours removed from his controversial and lie-filled appearance on Meet The Press, Donald Trump began viciously attacking “liberal Jews” on social media and accusing them of trying to “destroy America.” It was such a jarringly horrid post that we felt compelled to keep double checking on Truth Social that it really was from him and not a hoax. Unfortunately his post was very much real.
Trump’s attack on “liberal Jews” – by which he simply means “Jews” given that about 70% of American Jews vote Democrat – is horrific and deserves all the negative attention that it’s getting. Trump is a monster, and he’s willing to resort to increasingly evil rhetoric on his way down.
But I think there’s a reason why Trump is suddenly doing this, and it comes down to trying to distract us from what he’s not saying. Last week Jack Smith filed for a gag order which would put Trump in line for pretrial penalties if he makes any more inappropriate remarks about the case. Trump initially responded by bashing Smith’s filing. But as we got into the weekend, Trump ceased his attacks on Jack Smith and Judge Chutkan entirely. Instead he attacked President Biden, those who have dared to question his supposed net worth, and – as we all saw – “liberal Jews.”
It feels like Trump has indeed become scared to keep attacking Smith and Chutkan, for fear Chutkan will indeed hit him with a gag order – which could ultimately lead to pretrial incarceration. It further feels like Trump is launching these horrible attacks on Jewish people as a way of trying to keep anyone from noticing that he’s backed down from his attacks on Smith and Chutkan.
We all know how this goes. Trump will continue to refrain from attacking Smith and Chutkan for a certain amount of time, whether it’s a matter of hours or months. Then he’ll resume his attacks once he thinks he’s in the clear, or once he can no longer control himself. And in the meantime he’s going to try to “look strong” by launching various other kinds of attacks. Even as we loudly condemn Trump for his evil attacks on Jewish people, let’s remember that he’s probably doing this to try to distract us from what he’s suddenly backing down on.
